In the Grey of the Morning
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: Oneshot collection, set in an AU in which Richard's aim was a little better than in canon... and now, as a vampire, Integra is eternally twelve years old.
1. The Trajectory of a Bullet

**DISCLAIMER: Hellsing belongs to Kouta Hirano.**

 _But in the grey of the morning,_  
 _My mind becomes confused,_  
 _Between the dead and the sleeping,_  
 _And the road that I must choose_.  
-The Moody Blues, "Question"

~ In the Grey of the Morning ~

Her blood awakens him, but it is too late. The girl who should be his new master lies dying in his arms. Even if he could get her to a hospital while she is still alive, medical attention would be useless. The wound is something that no human could possibly live through.

He still wants to save her.

He should not even _consider_ it.

 _She is still a child_.

That's part of the reason he can't stand to let her life end like this.

 _She is old enough_ , he argues with himself internally. _Old enough to reason. Old enough to not be completely consumed by the hunger_.

She has so little time left, he can already see the light in her eyes beginning to fade. He's made his choice, yet still he pauses for the moment it takes to ask her if she wants this.

She nods.

With no further hesitation, his fangs sink into her neck.

He knows it is the wrong decision.

She is still a child.

No matter how many years she 'lives' after this, she will always be a child.

Once he slaughters her uncle and all of the other humans who supported this plot to murder the rightful heir, they will be forced to leave this place. The Round Table does not allow vampires of her kind to exist. They will surely be hunted to the ends of the earth.

He finishes draining her, and crystal-blue eyes blink up at him in confusion as he offers her his own blood in return.

The humans have been staring at the scene in stunned silence until this moment, but now her uncle orders the goons to shoot, to _kill the vampires_.

He leaves her side for only a moment to take out the human trash. Afterward he returns to kneel before her.

Red eyes blink up at him.

He does not regret his decision.

~oOo~

 **A/N:** While this IS going to be a single continuous story told in chronological order, it is a series of oneshots which will vary in length, style, and tone. I would post them separately, but FFN doesn't have a series-linking function like AO3 does, and also I hate filling out captchas to post a new fic, so it's going in a collection here. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧


	2. With the Lights Out and The Night Inside

~ In the Grey of the Morning ~

The manor is dark when Walter returns. He finds it odd that not a single light burns in any of the windows, but not entirely suspicious. It is only early evening, after all, and there is still enough sunlight that those inside might not find it necessary to turn a lamp on quite yet.

When he enters the house, the air is still.

 _I must be getting old_ , he thinks bitterly to himself. _I should know to trust my instincts by now_.

Because something is definitely wrong here. He readies his wires as he carefully creeps further into the manor.

 _What happened while I was gone?_ he wonders as he wanders through the empty house. _Where are the soldiers? Where are the servants?_

There isn't another living soul anywhere in the house. Yet, strangely, nothing else seems to have been disturbed.

It isn't until he reaches the soldiers' barracks and finds the walls streaked with blood - still tacky, he notes - but no bodies anywhere in sight, that he realizes this must be Alucard's doing.

His first thought upon this realization is _Why would Alucard even have been woken up? Richard wouldn't be stupid enough to do that, would he?_ His second thought is _Of course Richard **would** be stupid enough to do that_.

Walter checks the rest of the manor. Not a living person or a single corpse is anywhere to be found. Several bedrooms in the domestic staff's living quarters seem to have been ransacked, valuables and personal items appear to have been grabbed in a hurry, and he says a silent prayer that those who had time to flee were actually able to escape the vampire's bloodthirsty rampage.

The basement is the last place Walter looks. By this point, he is not at all surprised by what he finds. Alucard's coffin is gone. The cell is open, its walls and floor and even the _ceiling_ liberally splattered with blood, vacant but for Richard's corpse - apparently the one thing the vampire would not deign to eat.

While he may not have cared for the man himself, Walter kneels to close the eyes of Richard Hellsing's corpse, to let him rest in peace. And there, beside the body, he spots a torn scrap of bloodstained blue ribbon to which is pinned a small silver cross.

 _Integra_.

Without thinking, he reaches out and picks up the cross. Although he hadn't consciously realized it, until this moment Walter had been holding out hope that the child had survived, that she'd been in the company of those who fled. But now that hope is gone, for here in his hand is the proof that she did _not_.

The monster had slaughtered his keepers, freeing himself of his bonds, and fled.

Walter stands, the cross still clutched in his hand. He knows what must be done now. He will have to contact the Round Table and let them know of this development. And then... then it will be time to unseal the long-neglected Dark Arts Laboratory which is also housed in this very basement.

He will need to create a new weapon - one capable of putting Alucard down once and for all.

~oOo~


	3. A Dream, for a Single Evening

~ In the Grey of the Morning ~

It is more conspicuous for them to travel as two little girls than as a man and his daughter or even as a girl and her dog. They are certainly eye-catching, the two of them. They could almost be twins - twins who are each other's opposite reflection: one fair with dark hair, the other dark with fair hair; one dressed in black with accents of red, the other in white with accents of blue.

They walk through a twilit town, linked hands swinging between them, gazes roaming - one wondrous, one wary. Occasionally they pause and glance at one another. Alucard is quick to smile whenever he catches Integra looking at him. While it would be too conspicuous for him to take this particular form too often, he can at least give her a dream for one evening of having a friend her own age.

~oOo~


End file.
